(No new pictures this week, he forgot his cable for the camera.)

Good morning! Mom and Dad, and all the family.  I hope everything is going well with you guys.  Its Monday morning, the fifteenth of April.  Yeah, so let me think.  I think I’m going to get a lot of letters from Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow, because I am going to Londrina for the Leaders Council.  So, we are going to get materials.  And, if I am right, there should be some letters they have sent to me through mission ties that went to the house in Maringa.  So, those will be brought to me this week, and I will be able to read them.   Also, this week I got a letter from Matt and Chris.  And, that was probably one of the most hilarious letters I have ever read.  I am not really sure why, it was just hilarious!   I liked it a lot, and just tell them I said thanks.  And, I know she said I don’t need to write them, but I will actually try to write them or something.  But, like she said, if not, we will just talk afterwards.  Thank you for that letter, Matt and Chris. 

So, this week was a pretty interesting week.  It started out on Monday, I had a really neat experience giving another missionary a blessing.   There was a missionary going through difficult times, so he asked for a blessing.  I started, I put my hands on his head, and I said his name, and I tried to think of what to say.  There was nothing coming, it was a blank.  I couldn’t think of what to say, so I delayed five or ten seconds of me not saying anything, and then, as soon as I thought, what does the spirit want me to say,  I started to feel like…. I don’t know , its hard to describe.  Like my head was swirling or something.  And, I just started speaking words that the spirit was giving me.  And, it was a really, really intense experience.   I don’t really remember everything I said in the blessing.  I only remember the last phrase.  But, I was really grateful that it was by the spirit and everything.  That was a really neat experience.  Yeah, that was on Monday. 

And, then, also on Monday,  we went to the roof of our apartment building, I will show you pictures, we went to the roof, for P-day.  To, just, hang out up there, cause theres a place where you can just hang out.  But there’s an even higher place for antennas and stuff, and we went on top of that.  I will send you some pictures.  It was safe, don’t worry. 

Then, during the week, I worked in division every single day of the entire week, because there were three missionaries, three American missionaries, who had to go to Londrina to get their Visas renewed.   So, all their companions were sitting around and everything, so we had them working with us.   And, so I was in a lot of divisions this week, every single day.  I didn’t work with my companion once, until Sunday. 

And, I don’t know if I ever told you guys about the whole Visa thing.  But, I have been trying, and wondering how I am going to get my Visa renewed for about 8 months… 8 or 9 months.  So, we called them, 2 or 3 weeks ago, and they called the church headquarters in Brazil, which is in Sao Paulo,  and they were like, ‘you still haven’t gotten this guys paperwork in to get his Visa renewed.’  So, they just like, …. I don’t know what they did.   The secretary told me they called Brazilla, the capitol, and they called back the secretary, and were like, ‘listen,  he doesn’t have to go and get his Visa renewed, he doesn’t have to do anything, he is taken care of for the rest of the mission.’  And, so, my identification is expired and everything, and I said, ‘do I need new identification or anything?’  And they said, ‘no, you just stay exactly how you are, its taken care of.’  And, that was really kind of sketchy to me.  Just because, every missionary has to go and renew their visa and get the photos taken and all that.   So, that worked out in a way I didn’t think that was going to work out. 

I learned a lot this week.  I learned a LOT this week.  It was really, really good experience.   I read a talk by Elder Eyring called, Faith and Keys.   Which talks about how its important that we have a spiritual confirmation about the keys that our leaders hold .  I thought it was a really interesting talk, and how, if we look to have a testimony about our leaders, the prophet, about how they actually hold the keys of God, it will strengthen our testimony of the restored church.  One thing I really thought was interesting too, above all that, he said, ‘whenever there’s a change in leadership, in the apostles, the prophet, or even your bishop, they are actually really good opportunities to see, to have a witness, that Heavenly Father is still passing the keys to the next person: that he is still giving the keys to people here on the earth.  I thought it was a really interesting talk. 

I learned a lot about the priesthood this week.  I read one talk that talked a lot about it,  (??) the holy order of the son, and stuff like that.  And, it was just really, really neat stuff, that I have been learning a lot this week.  Its nice, because, on the mission I have started to learn how, what the difference is between learning, and learning by the spirit.  And, I am not really sure if I can learn things outside the gospel by the spirit, at least things inside the gospel.  And, it makes it (???) a lot more. 

So, I worked in divisions the entire week like I said.  There’s a guy we made a contact with on Wednesday, and we asked if we could come by your house one day and teach the gospel.  And, he was completely uninterested, ‘No, I have my own church.   I only live here during the week, then I go home on the weekends to the other city to where my family is.’  And then, I don’t know why, but it was the first time on my mission, when someone seemed completely uninterested, but I still felt like I had to go back there.  And so, we took down his address, and he was like, ‘yeah, if your lucky you will find me in my house.  I am only in my house between 5 and 6, maybe.’  And so, on Friday, it was 7:00 at night.  And, we were near there.  And, the missionaries we were on division with were like, “what are we going to do now?”  And, I just felt like, ‘hey, lets go to this guys house.’   And, so we showed up there at like 7:00, and he was there working on his car, just about to leave.  And, he was like, “oh, you caught me!” So, he was like, ‘you guys have three – five minutes at the max.’  I have to go, right now.  So, I just felt like I should give him a book of mormon.  So I just started talking about the Book of Mormon, what it is.  And, I don’t know if its they way his facial expressions are, or if it was really radical, but he looked really, really skeptical.  You could tell from his face, that he was like, super skeptical.  So, I just bore my testimony to him really strong, I just felt like I needed to bear my testimony to him, and it moved everything.  He took the book, he got really excited about it, he was like, ‘thank you for coming by.’  And, it was just because of the testimony that we bore, and it touched his heart.  And, its nice to know he’s going to read the book.  And I was really excited because it was the first time the Lord prompted me to go back to someone who didn’t want anything to do with anything. 

But, I am almost out of space on this voice recording, so I love you guys, and I will talk to you next week. 

Bye!